Chapter Text
The five great villages are known throughout the continent, each and every one of them being military forces so big that they could end any minor country in a day if they so desired.
I wasn’t born in one of those nations.
I walk into the house of the leader of our Shinobi Village, the small and unimportant Hidden Village of the Rivers , a Village so unimportant it didn’t even appear in most maps.
Our village had only five Jounins, twenty Chunins, thirty Genin and no special forces.
It was, to call it in easy terms, a pitiful village with no political, economical nor military power.
As if things weren’t bad enough for us, we were forced into an alliance with the Hidden Village of the Sound , this so-called alliance is not only an annexation in anything but name but we also are used as fodder.
Nobody is happy with this arrangement but the only other option is being killed or experimented upon.
My break is almost over and I start heading out to our headquarters, walking through my small village I see a small boy, not older than ten, trying to flirt with a girl at least five years older.
Probably something that will become an embarrassing memory in a few years, but at the same time, it’s a happy life.
Our village is one in every meaning of the word, we don’t have many houses and we live on agriculture and shinobi work, we don’t even have more than a single smith and most of our weapons are stolen from our enemies.
I enter a house, inconspicuous in all but a sign that marks it as the one that the current supervisor of the Sound Village is using.
“Long time no see Tohno, right on time for your next mission”
The man that goes by the name of Kabuto Yakushi enters my field of vision, not like it matters as I could feel him before I even entered. Perks of being a Sensor.
“Let’s skip the pleasantries and go straight to the topic, what will you order me to do? Kill the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails?”
To be honest I don’t expect to live, each mission that he sends me to the risks become greater and greater to the point I’m sure he’s just getting off my suffering at this point.
“Close my dear friend, we only need you to take one of his fingers and put it in this small vial, seal it with the button and return” I could see his stupid grin go from ear to ear, there is no way he actually expects me to succed.
I may be a Jonin, one of the two Jonins in this forsaken village but even I hold no hope of stealing a finger from the Jinchuriki of the most dangerous of the Bijus.
“Good joke Kabuto, now tell me the truth before my next break comes” With a disillusioned face he speaks like a baby.
“But this is no joke Tohno, these are direct orders from Orochimaru, if you don’t believe me you can just, look at this letter I brought with me perhaps?” He unfurls a piece of paper he had hidden on his pants, there is the Seal of Orochimaru , the Chakra signature that only he can make.
And so I am left with no options but to believe that this stupid decision is true, that the stupid snake guy really cares more about his own sadistic joy than his own goals.
“I’ll take it, and for the record my name is Kazan, Tohno Kazan of the Rivers” I take the stupid vial from his hands and walk away of the house.
“One last thing, Tohno, the Nine Tails is going to be a week later on the Akiha Bridge in the Country of Coins. As you may know the Country of Coins is just between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rivers so be sure to lose any pursuers before you arrive here.” Damn bastard.
I can’t even refuse nor change any detail of the mission unless I want this village to suffer a death.
Containing my anger I tell Kabuto one last thing.
“I’ll do the mission, now fuck off” And I closed the door behind me.
The Hunter lays the Trap
Here I am, on the Akiha Bridge a day before Naruto arrives. Kabuto gave me no information on who else is going to be with Naruto on this day so I can’t risk a delay.
The Akiha Bridge is a bridge between two tall mountains, the bridge is actually composed of six different bridges that are numbered, number one connects both summits and number six connects the bottom just above a river that separates this river.
Both Mountains are actually hollow, the caves of the southern Reaper Mountain are only used by animals while the Hisui Mountain at the north is housed purely by humans. My current plan is to confront Naruto on the First bridge and then run towards the Hisui Mountain, once there I’ll try to lose any opposition I may have, if they seem willing to use big scale Jutsus though I’ll need to confront them on the Reaper Mountain to minimize Civilian Deaths.
I am currently under the effect of a transformation jutsu under which I have a Noh mask. My Shinobi Jacket is of bad quality but is the best one I had so it can only stand Kunais that aren’t reinforced by Chakra.
I decide to spend what will probably be my last day alive meditating and eating the beasts of Reaper Mountain, my Senjutsu is not half bad but I can’t attain a Perfect Sage Transformation even while undisturbed and still.
I could place explosive seals but the probability of the Nine Tails to see them is too high, and while I don’t know if they are going to come with him, one of his teammates is Sasuke Uchiha so laying any Chakra Trap is futile while a mundane one is useless.
I know my chances are low, but for the sake of those ignorant children I will win.
Starting the Hunt
I wake up at Four in the morning, there is no one on the bridge right now but I do my act, trying to maintain my breathing stabilized.
I won’t die, not today, I won’t die, not today.
Once and again I repeat the same words almost like a Mantra, there is nothing that I can do to maintain myself calm so I decide to stop and keep myself nervous, at least I will be aware of my surroundings.
One of my key techniques is the Sage Art: Breathing World which allows me to keep anyone from seeing my Chakra as I seem to be just a piece of grass. One of the techniques that my late Jonin Sensei had for me.
I keep walking through the First Bridge when I see a group of three teenagers joking around, happy and unaware of what is happening.
But I notice something, I can feel the chakra of the Nine Tails inside one of them.
The blond teenager that is talking to a pink haired girl is full of it, it’s almost disheartening how much Chakra he has as it rivals mine when under Sage mode and he isn’t even fighting.
Surely he must be the Jinchuriki, I keep walking towards their direction, easy to disguise as a regular walk as there are only two directions on this bridge.
I keep walking until I am mere three meters away from the trio of teenagers, I am close to victory. Only a single step and I can cut his finger by summoning my Odachi.
A step, we all do a step.
And in a flash of light my chakra surges and my Odachi is brought forth less than an inch away from Naruto’s right hand.
I chop it.
And in a puff of smoke the person who I was so sure was the real deal was revealed to be nothing more than a Shadow Clone .
To call me surprised would be putting it lightly.
What did he do to fool my senses? Am I already under a Genjutsu or did he really put all his chakra just to bait me? When Shadow Clones are dissipated their Chakra is lost so unless he used a Hidden or Forbidden variation there’s no way he would do something so stupid.
Regardless of whatever I may think about the reasons, the fact that remains is that the other two people are also flaring their chakra and approaching me.
There are two of them, one is a teenager with black hair and the… Sharingan…
He is Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf, the other one must therefore be Sakura Haruno.
I have no way of defeating all of them, Sasuke already earned the rank of Jonin and Naruto and Sakura are Tokubetsu Jonin centered on head on confrontations.
The chakra of that Shadow Clone was unmistakably the one of the Nine Tails, after all it’s the same that I felt when I encountered the previous Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails.
Damn everything, I have no way of defeating them both while searching for Naruto.
I need to focus on defeating one of them first.
Think, both are able to act as Medical Ninja, Sakura due to her training under Tsunade and Sasuke should be able to mimic jutsus he saw, which probably include most of the ones from his teammates under lower ranks.
This means that the best Medical Ninja is Sakura, if my intel is to be believed Tsunade can even regenerate lost arms and vital organs as long as she holds enough stored up chakra, which she does with the Seal of a Thousand Lives.
I don’t sense nor see any such seal on Sakura so it’s safe to assume I only need to cut an extremity and then go for the kill.
Sasuke on the other hand has already started his signature technique, the Kaminari-fan , his own variation of the Chidori of his teacher.
Fuck it all, I don’t know for how long he can maintaint his concentration on the Jutsu but his Chakra has to be enough to maintain it for three hours without interruption.
He is to my right so I need to block his Lightning Jutsu with my Odachi, that will leave me open to Sakura’s attack.
Damn it, I’ll just run back and dismiss the summon of my Odachi.
The direction of my sword changes and I clash it with Sasuke’s Jutsu, a blinding light proceeds to emanate and block my vision.
Thankfully I can still sense Sakura approaching me with her fist raised.
I can’t do a good enough Genjutsu to make her err her punch, if it was too drastic she would notice.
But she’s too fast for me to run back as I planned and I can’t actually evade.
That only means I need to redirect her punch with brute force.
With one last push I move my Odachi to make Sasuke lose his footing and I make the hand signs for my Jutsu.
“ Sage Art: Amanojaku”
I don’t hold any elemental affinities and my teacher didn’t have the ability to teach me how to make up for it.
Therefore I just use pure and unformed chakra.
A scream reverberates as the technique starts, the chakra that I formed takes the form of a cockroach and it flies towards Sakura, she punches it.
Just as planned, immediately her expression changes but I don’t hold enough time to see if the secondary effects of my technique took hold, instead I run towards Reaper Mountain with every desire of rethinking my strategy.
One step, two steps, three steps and they have yet to approach me.
Fourth step and they are running in my direction, it seems I am faster even without using the Body Flicker technique.
I keep running, once I find myself in the Reaper Mountain I’ll be able to distract them with the local fauna…
But before I noticed a person came into the reaches of my sensory abilities.
It’s on the entrance to Reaper Mountain, and it’s approaching as fast as Sasuke and Sakura.
It’s the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails with even more chakra than the one of his clone.
No, that is selling it short, it has at least as four times as chakra as his clone.
I am cornered by my enemies, a pincer maneuver done in a perfect manner.
“YOU WON’T GET AWAY!!” The warcry of the Jinchuriki of the Nine Tails reaches my ear as he starts forming Chakra with the power of the Nine Tails, in less than the blink of an eye his speed increases to double of mine while he charges what seems to be the technique of the Fourth Hokage.
I won’t be receiving the Rasengan head on, that would just destroy my ribs and all the organs behind in less than a second.
Instead of doing such a suicidal action as confronting either of the two groups I do the only thing I can do.
I jump, not towards any of my attackers but towards the abyss that is falling from the First Bridge towards a fall of more than three kilometers of altitude.
Both Sasuke and Sakura falter in their steps as they see me jump towards what seems to be certain death.
But the Nine Tails? He just jumps towards me with enough strength to shatter the bridge.
He approaches me and I have no plan, he's ten meters from me with his hand stretched towards me.
The Rasengan is capable of tearing open my whole body.
I do the required hand signs.
Tiger, Ox, Dragon, Snake, Ox, Tiger and Ox.
“ Ninja Art: Bishamonten ”
Growing additional arms until I have eight perfectly functional arms, doing the half-snake sign on each of them to summon a different Odachi.
Channeling all my chakra on each and every one of them.
And lastly.
Slashing at the Rasengan with enough force to rip apart three men per slash.
The first Odachi is able to slash three times at the rasengan before it’s broken into pieces, some of them slashing at me.
The second one is able to stand only two clashes before it breaks, this time one of the metal shards pierces my left thigh.
The third, fourth and fifth are even worse, each only being able to withstand a single clash before being demolished, but this time, one of the shards got into Naruto’s eye, blinding him.
Still, the dam fucking beast doesn’t break his concentration!
The sixth and seventh both break at two impacts and Naruto has yet to be redirectioned. Neither his trajectory nor his speed have changed.
But, his Rasengan is becoming both smaller and less stable.
With only one blade left I use all my strength and deliberately channel more chakra than possible, finally breaking the rasengan and one of Naruto’s fingers.
With this his trajectory changed and he can no longer reach me by himself.
Doing two hand signs I lose my extra arms and I spit towards the lost finger.
As the spit collides the finger gets thrown in my direction.
In a single and swift motion I take the finger inside the vial, as I fall into the abyss.